The day Joe Frazier knocked Muhammad Ali down (photo)

[lunatica]

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. RIP Smokin' Joe

You and Ali gave me a lot of thrills.

[BeyondGeography]

2. One of the most amazing things about that

is he hit him with as even harder punch in the middle of that 15th and final round:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLWYnTFz9PE

It's around the 1:30 mark. It's like a sledgehammer hits Ali in the face. Amazing that he stood his ground.

Another thing is how fast Ali got up from that punch and the look on his face when he's standing in the corner for the 8-count. Kind of a cross between shock at being knocked down and resignation that he was going to lose.

The announcers in that 1971 fight couldn't believe the pace that two heavyweights were keeping that night. That fight was so hyped, then the real thing was even better.

[H2O Man]

21. The knockdown

was a result of Joe's landing while Muhammad was throwing an uppercut from the outside.

The hardest punches Joe landed were in Round 11. How Ali managed to stay up was amazing. The ropes held him at the point of the first damaging left hook.

[BeyondGeography]

24. Agreed...He was out on his feet in Round 11

I still put that second left hook of Round 15 right up there.

"That man," Frazier said later, his own face covered with pyramids of hurt, "can sure take some punches. I went to the country, back home, for some of the shots I hit him with." And Ali's jab faded like a sick flower. His once remarkable legs gone, his arms heavy, he hung on the ropes and spent long and dangerous periods in the corners; it was astonishing that he escaped serious damage. "The way they were hitting," said referee Arthur Mercante, "I was surprised that it went 15. They threw some of the best punches I've ever seen."

[PoliticAverse]

3. Down goes Frasier! RIP...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9q7mvc6bsY

[DirkGently]

4. Both fantastic athletes. They respected each other, though Ali's mouth irritated Frazier.

I recall from one of the documentaries they met one-on-one to talk about setting up one of the fights. Two colleagues, putting together an event to make a living, though each knew it was going to hurt.

I read a description attributed to a perennial contender of the era, who had lost to both Frazier and Foreman, asked about the difference. He said something like, "Getting punched by Foreman is like getting hit by a Cadillac going 50 mph, and getting punched by Frazier is like being hit by a Pontiac going 100 mph."

[pinboy3niner]

8. And Ali praised Frasier after the 'Thrilla in Manila'

(Ali) would later claim that this was the closest to dying he had ever been, and also stated, "Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him." In a brief post-fight interview with one of the commentators, Ali announced, "He is the greatest fighter of all times, next to me."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrilla_in_Manila#Fight

[Graybeard]

5. I saw the fight in '71 and I scored it for Ali.

Even with that knock-down I thought Ali had won enough rounds.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. So Did Larry Merchant

Hey. Ali won two out of three. That's enough for me.

And today is Joe's day.

[BeyondGeography]

7. It was close

One judge, incredibly, had it 11-4 for Frazier. The others were 9-6 and 8-6-1.

Ali did a lot of clutching and grabbing the last 2/3 of the fight, which may have cost him some points. Frazier landed the best punches and finished strong. Very few people would agree with you, but it was close.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. So All He Had To Do Was Change Two Rounds To Emerge The Victor

The second and third fight weren't as close.

But today is Joe's day though the revisionism regarding the trilogy drives me up a wall. Not the revisionism about the animus between the two but the outcome.

[BeyondGeography]

11. What revisionism?

There really isn't much to dispute.

Frazier won the first fight. Everyone who watched the fight knows it was close. The three judges called it for Frazier.

Ali dominated the second.

The third was a war that Ali himself always said he barely survived.

The End.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. The Revisionism

That the second fight was closer than it was. Ali figured out Frazier. Whenever Frazier got in close Ali tied him up. Foreman figured out Frazier too. But instead of tying him up he just shoved him back.

The third fight. The revisionists claim that if Joe Frazier came out for the fifteenth round Ali wouldn't. This ignores the fact that Ali was well ahead on all three cards and had rocked Frazier in the thirteenth and fourteenth round, knocking his mouthpiece into the third row.

I am beyond glad Frazier didn't come out for the fifteenth round. Ali might have literally blinded him or killed him and that would have put his legacy in a different light.

[BeyondGeography]

16. Ah, well, this is the stuff of rivalries

Ali was superior, no question about it, but Frazier was capable of surprising him.

I never fully understood the third fight until I saw an Ali-Foreman re-broadcast. Frazier was a commentator and he saw that Foreman was fighting the wrong fight in the third or fourth round "George is going to get tired if he doesn't watch it." When Ali recycled rope-a-dope in Manila, Frazier was completely ready for it. He had more stamina than Foreman and was much smarter. Ali had to walk through fire in those middle rounds as a result.

Those fights show you why Foreman was a terrible match-up for Frazier, who basically led with his head. Ali never knocked him down in 40-plus rounds. Foreman, well, I lost count...

[11 Bravo]

10. Didn't see it live, but I've seen it numerous times on tape.

I thought Frasier was clearly ahead on points, and the knock-down just cemented the decision. (And I'm an Ali fan.)

[Greybnk48]

12. I HATED that. Ali was and is one of my all time hero's.

I love him and hated to see him down. But I liked Joe too and I'm sad he's gone. I hope he didn't suffer. : (

[Arctic Dave]

14. RIP to a great athlete. nt

[joeybee12]

15. I never paid attention to boxing before that fight...but EVERYONE was talking

about it, leading up to it. For some reason, I was rotting for Joe. RIP.

[hifiguy]

17. Those were the days when boxing really meant something.

Smokin' Joe was the only man who could stay with Ali in his prime.

[dtexdem]

18. And Ali got brain damage out of all of it.

Someday we'll outgrow calling boxing a sport.

And, yes, Ali was a hero -- because of his refusal to be drafted.

And in his early fights, he really did make a sport out of boxing -- by dancing around, not by two barbarians punching each other in the head and elsewhere.

[Johonny]

20. Muhammad Ali hurt his reputation based on his treatment of Frazier

Joe Frazier took years to forgive Ali for all the horrible things he said about him. Ali was a great PR hype machine but he talked down Joe and said some truly offensive things about Frazier and Foreman. The sad thing was Frazier supported him on his return to boxing and felt Ali basically stabbed him in the back. I don't personality wise Ali is the same man now as he was then, but he's never going to erase all the things he said back then. One of the reasons Frazier death touches boxing fans is after all this time Joe comes off vastly more sympathetic than he was then.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

23. There was hurt on both sides

You're right about the way Ali treated him when Frazier offered to help Ali financially when he was out of boxing. Frazier also taunted Ali terribly, refusing to call him Ali and instead using the name Clay, which if you recall was a very inflammatory thing back then, something the hard right and racists said. Also I recall Frazier suggesting on a radio show that Ali was a coward and traitor for ducking Vietnam. I'm not making excuses for Ali, but you almost never hear about the fact that the insults went both ways.

[in_cog_ni_to]

19. Man, I cannot tell you how much I loved watching those two box. I remember that knock down.

Two of the greatest fighters ever. I loved Sugar Ray Leonard too! And Oscar de la Hoya :)

[RagAss]

22. I will never forgive Ali for treating this man the way he did. Pure evil.

[Marnie]

25. I watched the Rope a dope fight on TV and was stunned that

it was flatly given to Ali.